FACT FOCUS: Democratic leaders’ challenge to Trump’s election executive order misrepresented online
Social media users, including elected officials, are erroneously claiming that top Democrats filed a lawsuit to allow noncitizen voting in U.S. elections.
Many are also baselessly alleging the suit is further evidence of a Democratic plan to rig future races.
But the lawsuit — brought by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders over a recent executive order — argues that the order is unconstitutional, not for voting by noncitizens.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Democrats are suing the Trump administration to allow noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections.
THE FACTS: This is false. The lawsuit asks that President Donald Trump’s executive order to overhaul elections in the U.S. be blocked on the grounds that a president does not have the authority to dictate election rules. It also asserts that the order could disenfranchise legal voters. Casting a ballot as a noncitizen in federal elections is already illegal.
Michael Morley, a professor of election law at Florida State University, confirmed that the lawsuit is about separation of power issues, not noncitizen voting.
“There’s a federal law that prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections and so regardless of what happens with either the executive order or the lawsuit, that ban will remain in effect,” he said.
The March 25 executive order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” includes a requirement for documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and calls for states to work with federal agencies to determine voter eligibility and prosecute election crimes.
Some on social media have misinterpreted the lawsuit’s opposition to the order.
“Why are top Democrats suing to allow non-citizens to vote in American elections? You know why,” Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican, wrote in an X post.
But the lawsuit is not seeking to open a door for noncitizen voting.
Rather, it argues that the order “is an unlawful exercise of authority that must be declared invalid” due to a lack of presidential authority to control elections and the fact that the order does not stem from an act of Congress or the Constitution. It notes that the order contradicts existing “laws and guarantees” by legal bodies with the proper authorities.
The suit also alleges that stipulations outlined in the order “threaten to disenfranchise legal voters.”
Asked about Lee’s portrayal of the suit, Billy Gribbin, a spokesperson for the senator, said that “the Democratic party demonstrably wants non-citizens to interfere in American elections, and this suit is a means to that end.”
He added that Lee “opposes Democrat attempts like this one to sabotage America’s election integrity.”
Trump, who has spread election falsehoods for years, particularly since his loss in the 2020 presidential race, has argued that his executive order will secure the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens. Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections, already a felony, is exceedingly rare. Noncitizen voting is allowed in some local races.
An estimated 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of citizenship readily available, according to a 2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice and other groups.
A joint statement from the suit’s plaintiffs called the order “an unconstitutional grab for power by Donald Trump” that sets a precedent for throwing out legal votes and ignoring undesirable election results.
The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund filed a separate lawsuit shortly before the DNC’s that also called the order unconstitutional. Both are filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
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This story was first published on April 3, 2025. It was published again on April 7, 2025, to correct Sen. Mike Lee is from Utah, not Ohio.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.